Advanced search

Advanced search is divided into two main parts, and one or more groups in each of the main parts. The main parts are the "Search for" (including) and the "Remove from search" (excluding) part. (The excluding part might not be visible until you hit "NOT" for the first time.) You can add new groups to both the including and the excluding part by using the buttons "OR" or "NOT" respectively, and you can add more search options to all groups through the drop down menu on the last row (in each group).

For a result to be included in the search result, is it required to fit all added including parameters (in at least one group) and not fit all parameters in one of the excluding groups. This system with the two main parts and their groups makes it possible to combine two (or more) distinct searches into one search result, while being flexible in removing results from the final list.

In this article childrens musical improvisation is investigated through the reflexive interaction paradigm. We used a particular system, the MIROR-Impro, implemented in the framework of the MIROR project (EC-FP7), which is able to reply to the child playing a keyboard by a reflexive output, mirroring (with repetitions and variations) her/his inputs. The study was conducted in a public primary school, with 47 children, aged 6-7. The experimental design used the convergence procedure, based on three sample groups allowing us to verify if the reflexive interaction using the MIROR-Impro is necessary and/or sufficient to improve the childrens abilities to improvise. The following conditions were used as independent variables: to play only the keyboard, the keyboard with the MIROR-Impro but with not-reflexive reply, the keyboard with the MIROR-Impro with reflexive reply. As dependent variables we estimated the childrens ability to improvise in solos, and in duets. Each child carried out a training program consisting of 5 weekly individual 12 min sessions. The control group played the complete package of independent variables; Experimental Group 1 played the keyboard and the keyboard with the MIROR-Impro with not-reflexive reply; Experimental Group 2 played only the keyboard with the reflexive system. One week after, the children were asked to improvise a musical piece on the keyboard alone (Solo task), and in pairs with a friend (Duet task). Three independent judges assessed the Solo and the Duet tasks by means of a grid based on the TAI-Test for Ability to Improvise rating scale. The EG2, which trained only with the reflexive system, reached the highest average results and the difference with EG1, which did not used the reflexive system, is statistically significant when the children improvise in a duet. The results indicate that in the sample of participants the reflexive interaction alone could be sufficient to increase the improvisational skills, and necessary when they improvise in duets. However, these results are in general not statistically significant. The correlation between Reflexive Interaction and the ability to improvise is statistically significant. The results are discussed on the light of the recent literature in neuroscience and music education.

Robyn has been one of the most successful Swedish pop stars during the last decade. She has during these ten last years gone from being a young star to being the owner of her own record label, Konichiwa Records. As a result of her last record she became an artist, highly respected by her fellow artists and the audience. The aim of this essay is to discuss the term artistic freedom in the light of Robyn's career. The organization of the music industry is the starting point of the discussion. The way the record companies create their artists are linked to the demands of the public regarding the music they wish to purchase. Accordingly, the artistic freedom is limited by the public in an indirect manner. When artists refer to artistic freedom, or lack of it, it is the author's opinion that it should be understood as a confusion of conceptual arguments. The claim of this thesis is that as the artist refers to the negligence of artistic freedom he or she is in fact targeting on the organizational culture of the music company.

This essay presents an example of the musical life of a female composer active in Sweden during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through a case study on composer Sara Wennerberg-Reuter (1875-1959), the essay contributes information to her biography, which had been lacking specific details.

Wennerberg-Reuter's biography has been discussed regarding traditional roles of women in music, her relationship to her own artistry and other active women composers, and finally the contemporary reception of Wennerberg-Reuter as a legitimate composer. Aesthetical theories prevalent during Wennerberg-Reuter’s life has been applied in these discussions, such as those presented by Citron, Öhrström and Hanson, combined with Citron's additional theories considering masculine/feminine elements in the musical approach.

The main conclusions reached regarding the specific conditions enabling a professional status as a composer and woman in Sweden during the given time are;

a) the liberal permission by the family to pursue higher education in composing, since this was in opposition to the traditions of the time.

b) the access to a network of musically active women, from which a sense of being part of a female community can be created.

c) the acceptance from musical institutions such as higher educations, composer's societies and media critics.

In this essay, I want to achieve an accessible and applicable entrance to Alexander Technique as a method for learning to use the body in such a way as to allow emotional expression in music. It is necessary to see the real need of Alexander Technique for the active musician, and therefore important components of music-making will be presented. These components are presented from an Alexander-perspective in order to produce a clear picture of the method of application.The prerequisite for emotional expression in music is musicians and music listeners with the ability to generate, and respond after emotional impressions. Alexander Technique provides an approach to make it easier for musicians, especially guitarists, to express emotions in a performance situation.After years of practice and obtaining musical knowledge and practical skills at the instrument, it is common that muscle tension and ingrained patterns contribute to limited expression. Muscle tensions arising from pressured situations such as auditions, competitions and concerts. Repetitive movements contribute to this, and lays the foundation for an insufficient technique. It is clear that traditional learning methods need to be complemented with an approach that treats body awareness as an essential part of musical performances. The notion that the use of the body affects mental states is now a truism, and one can see an opening towards new approaches that facilitate learning as well as performance of musical works. The emotional expression is in focus here, and this study deals with musical production based on the philosophy that music should be driven by decisions involving emotional expression.

In this lecentiate disseratation music education and examination at the Royal Academy of Music (KMA) during the period 1796-1842, hear called the Frigel era, is described. The theory of culture provides a general perspective for the disign of the dissertation and the illustration of the issues. A model of analysis, which is a method of investigation rather than a finished model, forms a point ot departure in my attempt to demonstrate that education and examination had a double effect in society. It meant a cultural pluralism rather than a secularization.

Education during the Frigel era starts with an Elementary Singing School, but after 1815 its professional aim becomes gradually more obvious. Subjects during the period in question are the theory of music, singing, piano and organ. The examination for a post at school, at sixth form college or senior high school and in church is extensive. During a twenty-year period 80 music teachers, 90 precentors and 600 organists are examined.

Important issues discussed in this essay concern education content, education quality and examination demands related to school and church activities and also to the improtance of education in the development of society.

A 50th anniversary portrait of the artistically ambitious Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala is drawn by a variety of authors: choristers, listeners and musicologists,all familiar with choral singing and choral music.

The characteristics of the choir repertoire are extensively described by conductors, composers, Swedish and foreign soloists and instrumentalists. The choir has commissioned and delivered first performances of works by a number of Swedish composers.

It can also be noticed how economic and organizational changes in society influence the motility of choristers, the number of performances in concert halls, churches as well as other circumstances and possibly also the very choral sound.

The choir is invited to choral festivals, goes on tours in Europe and North America and hosts visiting choirs. The choir can also be heard on records.

Musical improvisation is an infinite artistic well. It helps the musician to make a personal performance and lets the music reflect the inner feelings. It is a language with which the performer can adapt the formulation to the specific situation. Yet so many have fear and respect when facing the phenomenon. In this study Dan Alkenäs discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using musical improvisation as a pedagogical method in school education. During a semester Alkenäs has, together with music teacher Bitten Löfgren and a group of pupils, studied what results are to be expected when teachers let musical improvisation have a leading role in music lessons. He discusses the creative working environment and the pupils’ ability to put theory into practice. One leading theme is the discussion of the common view of musicality. Alkenäs argues that it is important for a music teacher in a democratic school, with children from different kinds of cultures and backgrounds, to be flexible and adjust the lessons according to the individuals in the group. The study shows that this pedagogy, among other things, has a positive effect on interaction between students with different interest, levels of knowledge and potentials.

This essay describes a single case self-study of a music composer in order to track the compositional process in real time. In the study the subject and the researcher are the same person. The study builds on previous empirical studies that have used methodological approaches such as analysis of computer-based digital data collection, verbal protocol and video observations. It deals with issues of the compositional process related to for example time consumption, number of artistic decisions, the different roles and skills of a music composer, and methods of research in the musical composition process. During three shifts the researcher worked as a music composer dealing with the issue of converting an audio sketch of a composition into a representative finished audio product. The aim of the study was to highlight a specific phase the composititional process. The results can be divided into artistic and a scientific perspective. An artistic result is a developed and improved musical composition. Examples of scientific results is making visible and discussing artistic strategies in the context of musical composition. The study discusses different artistic roles that the composer uses during composing, each role with different skills and conditions, and how this role-playing significantly may influence the artistic result.

When French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected heir to the Swedish Throne in 1810, a dramatic dynastic venture commenced. In an age of revolutions, marked by political as well as cultural upheavals, the commoner from Pau was transformed into King Charles XIV John and the head of a new royal dynasty in Sweden and Norway. Although fraught with challenges, the venture proved successful. As restoration set in, and the Napoleonides of Europe fell one after the other, Bernadotte held fast, and today the dynasty is approaching its bicentennial on the throne.

In nine illustrated essays, the formation of a dynasty is explored as it unfolded in media such as ceremonies, spatial arrangements, opera performances, publicity and panegyrics.

This dissertation, titled Interactive Music Composition, is a practice based Ph.D. thesis in the field of Musicology. The purpose is to explore if and how one can compose computer based interactive music, that is musically satisfying for an interacting audience, consisting of both laymen and skilled musicians. The text describes the design and reflection in two interactive music installations: Do-Be-DJ, open-air installation in a public park, and, Mufi, with modular and moveable interface. Based on methods and per­spectives in Musicology and Interaction Design, a composition model for interactive music is developed. The model investigates the experience di­mensions listen, explore, compose and collaborate. It also investigates the design dimensions of interaction, narrative structure, composition rule and sound node. The conceptual approach is to apply improvisation and composition methods from jazz, pop and groove based music on interactive music. It also uses the concepts of openess in musical structures and interpretation, musical mediation of actions and meaning and everyday use of music, when composing interactive music. The dissertation contributes to an understanding of how to create composition techniques for interactive music, such as: Direct, varied and shifting response. It reflects on the change in meaning of the musicological terms composition, improvisation, musical work, listener, musician and audience. And on the interaction design terms interaction, gameplay, system and user. The term co-creator is used to describe an actively, interacting and collaborating person, to complement traditional terms like audience, performer and user.

Our voice and body are important parts of our self-experience, and our communication and relational possibilities. They gradually become more important for Interaction Design due to increased development of tangible interaction and mobile communication. In this paper we present and discuss our work with voice and tangible interaction in our ongoing research project RHYME. The goal is to improve health for families, adults and children with disabilities through use of collaborative, musical, tangible media. We build on the use of voice in Music Therapy and on a humanistic health approach. Our challenge is to design vocal and tangible interactive media that through use reduce isolation and passivity and increase empowerment for the users. We use sound recognition, generative sound synthesis, vibrations and cross-media techniques to create rhythms, melodies and harmonic chords to stimulate voice-body connections, positive emotions and structures for actions.